Hey! So, I'm going to be having a summer o' lumpley games (Dogs, IAWA, and Apocalypse World, at least), and I've been preparing for our In A Wicked Age game. The part I'm most excited about is the serial nature of the game, and the Owe List. That said, the only thing that doesn't make sense to me is the character return rules. The first two ways to bring a character back make perfect sense, but why does the third one exist?

(The third one reads: "The oracle provides an element who might very well be her, and you choose to make it be her in fact. For instance, the oracle might provide 'The unwitting husband of a serpent-demoness,' and Mekha’s player might shout out that that’s Mekha, pity poor him.")

It seems to mess with the Owe List trade-off, doesn't it? You don't have to worry about crossing off your character's name, because you can just find a way to justify him as one of the future oracles and bring him back anyway?

"You can just find a way to justify him" isn't how it works out in play. Most of the time, there's no possible justification, no appropriate character. When there is one, it's almost always like the example: sure, you get to play that character again, but now he's married to a serpent-demoness. Cool with me if it's cool with you!

A character who's not on the owe list is subject to the whims of the oracle, and the oracle's whims are cruel, cruel.